Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/tag/wisconsin-hospital-association/)
In the first six months of this year, Wisconsin’s 700-plus registered lobby groups collectively invested $14.1 million trying to shape state law or policy, according to new filings with the state Government Accountability Board.
Donations to Walker of $1,000 or more accounted for $2.6 million, more than half his total take. Burke got about $870,000 in donations of at least $1,000, or 68 percent of her total, excluding herself.
Special interest groups in Wisconsin spent less trying to sway state law and policy in the first half of 2013 than in comparable past periods. But it’s still a whole lotta moolah: more than $17 million.
Newly released numbers show that lobbying in Wisconsin during the tumultuous 2011-12 legislative session totaled $62.9 million — not exactly chump change, but lower than the session before.
A new Wisconsin law, which went into effect in February 2011, bars families from using state health investigation records in state civil suits filed against long-term providers, including nursing homes and hospices. It also makes such records inadmissible in criminal cases against health care providers accused of neglecting or abusing patients.